This blog is written by a journalist based in Mumbai who writes about cities, the environment, developmental issues, the media, women and many other subjects.The title 'ulti khopdi' is a Hindi phrase referring to someone who likes to look at things from the other side.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Calling a crime by its name

The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, July 22, 2012

How safe are our public spaces for women? Photo: Arunangsu Roy

Can we stop talking about the horrific incident in Guwahati on the night
of July 9 as the “Guwahati molestation”? To molest, according to the
dictionary, means “to pester or harass, typically in an aggressive or
persistent manner.” What happened that night on Guwahati’s busy G.S.
Road was a “sexual assault” on a young girl. So before we even begin
talking about it, let us call a crime by its real name.

The full story of what happened that night is still unspooling. But
enough is known to raise several crucial questions; ones that relate to
women, to our society, to the media and to the law enforcing agencies.
The incident might have occurred in what is usually considered a remote
part of India. But its fallout affects all of us, including those who
live in what people in the Northeast call the “mainland”.

Displays of insensitivity

Much has already been written about the July 9 sexual assault. Not
without reason has the representative of the National Commission for
Women, Alka Lamba, been asked to step down. In an astounding display of
insensitivity, she revealed the identity of the young woman to the
media. The Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, outdid her by getting
his office to send photographs of himself with the girl to the entire
media, and retracting after the pictures had already been circulated. So
much for protecting the survivor’s identity.

The question of the media’s role is the subject of much debate. The
Assam government has conveniently blamed the journalist who claimed
credit for making the story public. It is possible that this journalist
is culpable. Or he might have followed the example of many others,
journalists who stood by and recorded horrific events without making any
effort to intervene.

But journalists are also citizens. Even if there were only two of them
against a mob, they had no business to go on filming for a full half
hour without doing anything to stop the participants. In fact, when you
watch the video, you realise that the attackers are enjoying being
filmed. At the same time, the Assam government cannot absolve itself of
all responsibility by blaming the journalist.

No one is surprised at the actions, or rather lack of them, of the
Guwahati police. Why did they take so long to respond? Why did they not
arrest many more on the spot? Did they have to wait to see the footage
to identify the attackers? If they had acted with alacrity, would the
main assaulter, seen grinning at the camera, have escaped? We end up
asking these same questions repeatedly. When poor people demonstrate for
their rights, hundreds of them are rounded up and taken to the lock-up.
But if members of a political party go around vandalising and beating
up helpless people — as they do with regularity in Mumbai, for instance —
or when such incidents of sexual assault occur in a public place, the
police sit on their hands and wait. Not just women but everyone has to
be worried at this mockery of what is called “the law and order
machinery”.

Chilling indifference

And what can we say about the “aam janata”? Anyone who has been to
Guwahati will tell you that G.S. Road, or Guwahati Shillong Road, is a
main arterial road. The pub where the girl was attacked is not in some
isolated part of the city. Hundreds of vehicles ply on that road, as
they did that night. Hence her ability to find an autorickshaw which she
was about to take to go home. One of the most chilling sequences in the
video is watching the girl running on the road, begging people to stop
and help her. No one did until one man, another journalist, came to her
rescue and stayed with her until she was handed over to the police. Why
did no one help? Why do people not care, not want to be involved, to
extend themselves for another person? This is one more example of the
callous indifference that has infected urban life in India.

As for what this means for women, not just in Guwahati but all over
India, particularly urban India, the message is clear. The more things
change, the more they remain the same. Women might believe that they now
have more rights, that they have access to public space, that they can
make choices. The reality is that a patriarchal society will not accept
that women should have these rights, that it will try and teach those
who make choices “a lesson” and that violence is the currency that will
be used to teach these lessons.

Depressing, I know, but sadly true. As a young reader from Guwahati
wrote to me after this incident: “Some of us have the tendency to break
things or bash up some objects when we were furious or angry. But
nowadays we find that women have become potential objects capable of
replacing inanimate objects to suit the whims and fancies of the diehard
chauvinists of the country.”

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My profile

Journalist, columnist, writer based in Mumbai. Author of "Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia's largest slum" (Penguin, 2000). Worked with The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express and Himmat Weekly.
Other books include "Whose News? The Media and Women's Issues" edited with Ammu Joseph (published by Sage 1994/2006), "Terror Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out" edited with Ammu Joesph (published by Kali for Women, 2003) and "Missing: Half the Story, Journalism as if Gender Matters" (published by Zubaan, 2010).
Regular columns in The Hindu, Sunday Magazine and on The Hoot (www.thehoot.org).